Recording Calls to Protect IPR

I was a bit shocked by this one. ZDNet ran with the title “RIM’s CIO: We record all employee calls to protect intellectual property“. The piece was based on an interview ZDNet Australia with Robin Bienfait, CIO of RIM.

“Everything I have that’s on RIM is recorded and retained as RIM. So if they want to have a chat with somebody and it’s not a chat that’s within RIM’s domain, then they may want their own personal device,” she said.

When asked exactly whether it was conversations, rather than just written information she kept tabs on, Bienfait answered: “Everything. I record everything.”

Of course, recording doesn’t protect IPR, it simply enables the business to track down where the leaks came from. Bienfait goes on:

 ”We go take a look at whatever the breach or the leak is and we track it back to who or whatever caused it and we take whatever necessary action.”

RIM certainly has a track record of IPR litigation, quite aside from the Stock Option Backdating issue. A poll on the ZDNet site was split between those who believe that taping all conversations is justified on a companies network, and those that believe it is a privacy violation.

It is worth noting that there are large differences in privacy rules between the US and the UK and rest of Europe. The revelation certainly lit some fires in the blogosphere, and I was thinking the policy would be very problematic in the UK at least…

That was Until… “RIM: We Don’t Record ANY Staff BlackBerry Phone Calls” A statement from RIM:

“RIM does not record employee phone calls. Robin Bienfait’s comments…were intended to describe a capability that exists with RIM’s BlackBerry MVS technology. This technology allows companies to record both voice and data based conversations, which is particularly useful for RIM’s customers in regulated industries that require such ability, but Ms. Bienfait did not intend to suggest that RIM itself records employee phone calls.”

Whoops!